Amiri, also a former club owner, got a call from his hysterical mother saying that his father had been arrested on suspicion of helping his son escape Iran 20 years ago, only so said son could go and blaspheme the nation terribly:

They came and picked him up at 7:30 in the morning, and basically they were asking about me because of my role in The Wrestler. They were saying I was a traitor, and also because of my playing a gay character [in Factory Girl], the F-word got thrown around a couple times.

He was eventually released unharmed.

I don't know if it's more scary that Iran gives such a shit about what happens in the make-believe land we cobble together over here, or if it's more heartening that American independent cinema is being seen in places as far-flung as Persia.

Points of contention:

-They didn't like it when Mickey Rourke tore up the Iranian flag during that final battle scene in The Wrestler. (Because "pro" wrestling is totally real, and that guy, the Ayatollah, was a true-to-life depiction, too.)

-Hated 300 because it made their ancestors look bloodthirsty (we can only infer that the other guys were comparatively nicer? Huh?)

Well, their feelings are hurt and they want you to kiss their boo-boo.

Seriously, isn't this sort of like when, during the making of The Godfather, the Italian mobsters formed a little group called the Italian-American Civil Rights League that tried to promote the idea that not all Italians are bloodthirsty mobsters in bad suits? Riiight.

We think they might be overreacting just a tad in these particular cases. I mean, really. Think about how the Palestinians felt when they saw Rob Schneider in You Don't Mess With the Zohan.

For one thing, it's set in a strange land, with small children who run around covered in poo. Americans might be confused and stuff!

Not to worry!

The only feel-good movie of the year—or any year, really—that features (SPOILER ALERT) homeless children blinded with acid and forced to sing and hustle for money is doing quite well post Oscar-win.

Its Friday numbers were up 53% from last week, finishing third behind such worthy opponents as The Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, and Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail.

Other Oscar flicks experienced an uptick, as well, including the previously unmarketable The Reader, which, in recent ads (which we're trying desperately to find for you) is being pitched as a sex-filled courtroom drama, filled with intrigue and mystery, starring "Academy Award Winner Kate Winslet!"—and is missing all of those foreboding sad piano tones found in the original trailer, and downplays that whole Nazi thing. Well, at least they figured out how to sell tickets.

Milk and The Wrestler also did well at the B.O. post Oscars-even though Mickey Rourke was a loser. The former's gross went up a whopping 37.5%-bringing the total take to $28.8 million. Guess we are commie homo-loving sons of guns, after all.

The Wrestler, Robert D. Siegel's heart-wrenching tale of Randy "The Ram" Robinson-played by Mickey Rourke-a former professional wrestler far past his prime, is layered with metaphor. That includes metaphors like The Ram's foil Cassidy, an aging, single mother stripper—played by Marisa Tomei—as much a physical fantasy as Randy. Later, through Randy Robinson's doomed stint as part-time butcher-cum-performer, Siegel and Aronofsky drag the viewer through the titular wrestler's struggle with lost fame, estranged family, and the physical suffering that The Ram must endure.

But one scene, in which The Ram plays a fictional NES game with one of the neighborhood kids living in his trailer park, a boy who seems on the cusp of putting aside his hero worship of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, is perhaps most subtly affecting in its use of video game metaphor.

Following a particularly brutal wrestling match, with Randy "The Ram" Robinson recuperating at home, Mickey Rourke's character asks the young Adam (John D'Leo) to "play some Nintendo" with him. The two play Wrestle Jam '88, a decades-old 8-bit wrestling simulator starring The Ram.

Their exchange:
Adam: So, you hear about Call of Duty 4?
Randy: The what?
[The Ram, suffering from hearing loss, leans in to hear Adam better.]
Adam: Call of Duty 4.
Randy: What?
Adam: Call of Duty 4.
Randy: Call it duty for?
Adam: Call of Duty 4.
Randy: Call of Duty 4?
Adam: Yeah. It's pretty cool, actually.
Randy: Really?
Adam: (sighs) This game is so old...
Randy: What's it about?
Adam: It's a war game. Most all of the other Call of Dutys are, like, based on World War II, but this one's with Iraq.
Randy: Oh yeah?
Adam: You switch off between a marine and an S and S British special operative. So it's pretty cool.

Perhaps more affecting than the startlingly accurate description of Call of Duty 4, in pre-teen terms, rife with slight misinformation, is the contrast between the two games. Like Randy and Adam, Wrestle Jam and Call of Duty 4 are decades, generations apart—one antiquated, one highly-polished and contemporary.

Wrestle Jam is a work of fiction, a faux NES game created specifically for the film by motion graphics artist Kristyn Hume and programmer Randall Furino. The brother and sister team created the game from scratch, taking influence from 8-bit fighting games like Nintendo's Pro Wrestling and Acclaim's WWF Wrestlemania.

Hume, also responsible for The Wrestler's laboriously accurate title sequence, said that the film's producers and directors wanted that "classic video game" look and feel for Wrestle Jam, an effort that took weeks to create.

"Darren is a little bit unconventional," Hume said of the Wrestle Jam project, saying that the director wanted a fully functioning demo for Rourke and D'Leo to interact with. "It ended up being a working game. He wanted the actors to be able to play the game instead of them trying to act like they were playing."

"And I didn't want to hand animate the entire game because it would be way too time consuming," Hume said.

That meant that Furino, a tools programmer at Denver area developer NetDevil, had to program Wrestle Jam from the ground up, writing rendering, input, and artificial intelligence routines for the two playable characters, Randy "The Ram" Robinson and The Ayatollah.

"[Wrestle Jam is] completely playable. There was an intro screen, character select, win / loss conditions, opponent AI, eight different attacks," Furino explained. "It was as close to a genuine old-school wrestling game as I could make it in the time allowed. I even mapped an old Nintendo controller to the input system so they could play it that way."

Hume noted that one of the bigger challenges faced when creating Wrestle Jam was limiting her character sprites designs to the reduced palette of 8-bit hardware.

"Recreating yesterdays game with today's technology was hard," Hume recalled, saying that early Wrestle Jam designs were aesthetically inappropriate, "a modern style version of an 80s game," designs that had to be throttled back to match antiquated hardware.

That even meant dumbing down the programming.

"To get that exact look and feel encompassing everything we knew an 80s wrestling game to be, meaning the awkwardly timed reactions to punches and kicks to the generally stupid AI," Furino said.

Where the film's producers also added authenticity to Wrestle Jam was its soundtrack. Although the NES game features sound samples from the Atari 2600 versions of Donkey Kong and Pac-Man—the unofficial Wilhelm Scream of video game sound effects—it also came with a custom theme, an original 8-bit score composed by musician Joel Feinberg.

Feinberg's original direction for the Wrestle Jam score was surprisingly different from the final product.

"Originally they wanted it to sound like 'Bang Your Head' from Quiet Riot, but you know you have to be really careful doing something like that because it could end up costing you a lot of money," Feinberg said. "At the time there was no real buzz for this movie so things were tight. This was really a low budget film."

That real-life version of the Quiet Riot song would become The Ram's signature track, used during his approach to the ring.

Feinberg also took direction from Nintendo's classic Pro Wrestling for the NES.

"It reminded me to keep everything simple, not to 'over-write' the track. I think I made about 6 completely different versions, each one more simplified than the previous arrangement and different sound events."

"The director opted for the the most simplified version, I believe."

That track, titled "8-bit Wrestler," is barely audible in the final cut, but Feinberg has made a version available on YouTube.

While Wrestle Jam may not be a technical marvel, a month's worth of work from its two creators, plus Feinberg's score, went into making the NES game convincing as a narrative device.

"Given the prevalence of video games, you would think you'd see more of it," commented Robert Denerstein, former film critic at the Rocky Mountain News. "Advances in technology, like the introduction of the cell phone, have made things possible in storytelling that weren't possible before."

"I think it's something you'll see more of," Denerstein added. In the case of The Wrestler, the film critic says the references to the NES and Call of Duty 4 add a sort of poignancy, helping to make narrative leaps.

"I knew how Aronofsky was planning to work it in to the story but seeing it done was completely different. The way [Rourke] looked when he asked D'Leo to play, the whole back and forth about COD4, it really gave the feeling that Randy was living in a world that outgrew him," said Wrestle Jam programmer Furino on seeing his work in the film.

"I believe the movie would have been amazing without the game but I do like to think that my sister and I added a little something special. It was great that Aronofsky chose to go the rout of creating an actual game and I'm really grateful to him and my sister for the opportunity."

Similarly grateful was Infinity Ward to have their ultra-popular shooter used in the film.

"We were totally unaware that CoD4 was going to be referenced in the The Wrestler pre-release," explained Robert Bowling from Infinity Ward. "We got word of it before it went public, due to one of our guys getting into an early screening of the film and seeing the reference. Other than that, it was a total (and awesome) surprise to us."

"Personally, I thought Robert Siegel did the best game reference in a film I've seen in a long time, if not ever. It was natural and sold what they were going for with the scene," Bowling said.

But Bowling brushed aside accusations that the Call of Duty 4 reference was pre-planned or even product placement.

"I wish this was product placement," he quipped. "We should get some ‘Call it Duty 4?' shirts made."

TMZ paparazzi captured The Wrestler star emerging from his West Village lodgings, then followed him to a tanning salon/Brazilian waxing/staple-removal studio for a beautification regimen not unlike the one his character Randy "The Ram" undergoes in the film. He emerges a little later to the applause of appreciative fans wishing him best of luck, offering yet further echoes of The Wrestler, and we thought the moment could really benefit from the melancholic Americana of Bruce Springsteen's title song. Thanks to Gawker's Mike Byhoff, our dream became a reality. Enjoy.

• Mickey Grieves Dead Dogs, Tans His Hide [TMZ]

As these pictures show, both on and off the red carpet, Rourke only had eyes for Loki. Our chihuahua-compiling research also turned up evidence that before The Wrestler came out last year, Rourke used to host a weekly, Loki-dedicated night of karaoke at Rokbar in Miami. He did this shirtless, wearing a black leather vest, as is the custom in Florida.

Rest in peace, Loki. You died too late to join the "In Memoriam" pool, but we'll be saving our applause for you regardless.

[Photo Credit: AP, Getty Images, WENN, X17]

TMZ broke the news last night, just as these snippets were released from Rourke's upcoming interview with Barbara Walters:

"I sort of self-destructed and everything came out about fourteen years ago or so ... the wife had left, the career was over, the money was not an ounce," Rourke, 56, reveals during the Oscar night edition of The Barbara Walters Special, of which PEOPLE has an exclusive preview. "The dogs were there when no one else was there." [...]

"I think I hadn't left the house for four or five months, and I was sitting in the closet, sleeping in the closet for some reason, and I was in a bad place, and I just remember I was thinking, 'Oh, man, if I do this,' " he tells Walters. "And then I looked at my dog, Lowjack, and he made a sound, like a little almost human sound. I don't have kids, the dogs became everything to me. The dog was looking at me going, 'Who's going to take care of me?' "

Rourke didn't let a little thing like Loki's death keep him from hitting up some Manhattan hotspots last night, but we all know that the man is hurting inside. The competition to become his Oscar date has just been thinned even further. Bai Ling, it didn't have to be like this.

• R.I.P. Mickey Rourke's Dog [TMZ]

• Mickey Rourke — Comforted By Puppy Love [TMZ]

• Mickey Rourke: My Dogs Saved My Life [People]

By sorta-kinda-coming-on to a male fan in front of the paparazzi, of course! TMZ has the gay-ameliorating footage of Rourke drawing the autograph seeker in for a smoochy clinch (+4 gay points) captured last night outside Paris Hilton's birthday party (-3 gay points). "I'm gonna kiss you all night long," Rourke murmurs to the man (+2) while insisting that he should have been cast in "that gay movie" (-1), Milk (+5 if he would be willing to tape an after-the-fact audition for Diego Luna's character). Are we looking at a surprise, same-sex upset in the derby to become Rourke's Oscar date? Bai Ling, it may be time to raise your game. Roll out of bed, wrap some dental floss around your nipples, and get to work.

• Mickey Gays Out — Kisses Man, Offends Others [TMZ]

Pictured, an attachée to France's Ambassador of Cultural Affairs delivers the Wrestler star Les Seins d'Or—the government's highest form of artistic recognition and a deeply symbolic gesture of Franco-American goodwill.

[Photos: Splash News]

Rourke's Wrestler daughter/potential lover Evan Rachel Wood has something to get off her chest, and so she talked to Rolling Stone blogger Austin Scaggs, who, SIDENOTE, you really must read Austin Scaggs's introduction to this story, in which he brags that Wood is his BFF because they were briefly introduced once two years ago when Scaggs was assigned to interview Marilyn Manson. He hasn't seen her since that night, but still! Besties. Anyway, here is what Scaggs had to say about Wood:

With no other friend in the press to turn to, we heard from Evan this morning. She has been so distraught by these rumors, and the attention they have taken away from the brilliant movie, that she asked us to pass along this message. And we obliged.

"I’m upset because I feel disrespected by the press and by Mr. Rourke," she told us. "Just because I’m single doesn’t mean that you can take advantage of me. It’s unfair that the performances might suffer because of all of these distractions."

And regarding her alleged affair with Mr. Rourke, Wood says, "I'm not attracted to him, he's too old for me. Nothing ever happened and nothing ever will."

What exactly did Rourke do to "disrespect" Wood? Did she fall to a distant fourth in the Oscar companion sweepstakes that includes Bai Ling, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and a chihuahua? Or, when told that Wood would be making her Broadway debut opposite Spider-Man, did Rourke blithely mutter, "That fag?"

• Evan Rachel Wood Clears Up the Rumors In the S.S. [Rolling Stone]

"Mickey was very honored to be asked as he has the greatest respect for WWE however he will not be participating in Wrestle-Mania. He is focusing entirely on his acting career."

Crisis averted (consider those staples gingerly plucked out). Now, Rourke is free to get back to his most pressing matters: Academy Award Q&As in retirement homes, renegotiating his Iron Man 2 salary, and picking out a suitable strand of dental floss for Bai Ling to wear on the Oscar red carpet.

[Photo Credit: AP]

Previously: Could Mickey Rourke's New 'Wrestlemania' Gig Cost Him An Oscar?

Rourke and WWE Chris Jericho were on Larry King Live last night to discuss their burgeoning feud, which one expects will be settled during Rourke's confirmed appearance at Wrestlemania 25 in April. Though Jericho was clearly into it, Rourke seemed withdrawn—perhaps realizing that the Academy likes to hand out awards that they think will encourage legitimate work, not paid faux-sports appearances on cable that Rourke could probably even have secured pre-comeback.

Now that Rourke's closest rival, Sean Penn, has picked up a SAG award, the momentum from Rourke's Golden Globe win has abated, putting the two in a dead heat. Do whatever you need to after that ceremony, Mickey—just think twice about continuing to promote the WWE while you're on your "serious actor" press tour (unless you'd like to power-slam Chris Jericho under the regretful stage name "Norbit").

• Mickey Rourke Calls Out Chris Jericho On Larry King With Calm, Gentlemanly Praise [BWE]

Says Fox News:

The two attended Grey Goose’s Official SAG after-party at the Shrine on Sunday evening but were spotted leaving together enroute to the later after party at the Four Seasons Hotel. According to Pop Tarts spies, the actress went upstairs with Rourke (whose second marriage ended over a decade ago) when he suddenly grabbed her for a lip-lock in the outside area of the swanky five-star hotel.

The duo have been romantically linked since she played his daughter in "The Wrestler," although Wood always denied that they were anything more than friends.

Reps for Rourke and Wood did not respond for comment.

Screwing your on-screen blood relations: it's 2009's newest hot trend! Between Wood, Bai Ling, and his elderly chihuahua, Rourke is facing quite the collection of potential Oscar dates; we encourage the actor to split his sweeties by squiring one to the awards ceremony, one to Wrestlemania, and one to the vet to check for worms. Any combination will do.

• 21-Year-Old Evan Rachel Wood Busted Making Out With Movie Dad [FoxNews]

Nevertheless, MSNBC reports that the actor has booked an appearance at Wrestlemania 25, which is an event that gives the city of Houston something to do. Whether he'll be appearing as himself or as his on-screen alter ego remains to be seen, though at least the April shindig is well out of Oscar range.

“The boys from the WWE called me and asked me to do it,” Rourke told Access Hollywood. “I said, ‘I want to.’ I’m talking with [WWE legend] Rowdy Roddy Piper about it.” [...]

And when he does jump into the ring with WWE, it appears the actor may already have his sights set on an opponent.

“Chris Jericho, you better get in shape,” Rourke added. “Because I’m coming after your ass.”

Will Rourke finish Jericho off with an up-high Ram Jam? Will Bai Ling attempt to stop the proceedings, then watch forlornly backstage? More importantly, is this what Rourke has to do to get paid nowadays?

• ‘Wrestler’ star Rourke to get in WWE ring [MSNBC]

And to Barbara Walters's dismay, his choice isn't her—no matter how any blandishments she lavished upon the actor after catching him in nothing but a tight t-shirt in his dressing room (inspiring fourgy dreams involving Michael Phelps and Simon Baker too graphic to be described here). No, the apple of Rourke's eye is our own Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who virtually clambers over Joy Behar after getting the "groupie go-ahead" from the Wrestler star. At least they'll have a lot to talk about.

• The View [ABC]

His new ad for PETA only adds to the actor's tough/sensitive mystique (even if it may remind audiences that Rourke himself is no stranger to superfluous surgeries). However, what of Rourke's admission to GQ that though he didn't really follow politics enough to pay attention to Barack Obama's election, people need to start laying off President Bush?

"President Bush was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don't know how anyone could have handled this situation," the actor said in an interview with GQ magazine.

"I don't give a —-- who's in office, Bush or whoever, there is no simple solution to this problem... I'm not one of those who blames Bush for everything. This —-- between Christians and Muslims goes back to the Crusades, doesn't it." He added: "It's too easy to blame everything on one guy. These are unpredictable, dangerous times, and I don't think that anyone really knows quite what to do."

The actor also told the magazine he was surprised at Britain's approach to fundamentalists and the freedom of speech in the UK.

"I was in London recently and I couldn't believe all these hate-talking fanatics you have over here who are allowed to carry on doing their thing even when a bus full of women and children gets blown to pieces."

Mickey, a bit of advice: a little contrarian conservatism will only add some spice to your quirky profile, but when Big Hollywood come along and asks whether they can append your byline to their latest boilerplate screed against gay Communist Muslim executives in Hollywood, just say no. You don't want to offend any!

• Mickey Rourke Gets in the Ring with PETA [E!]

• Mickey Rourke defends George W Bush over 9/11 [Telegraph]

The Daily Beast reports that Rourke has been talking down Penn's Milk performance all month—a crusade that has culminated in an accusatory text written wholly in Courtney Love-ian hierogylphics.

After his December 23 appearance on David Letterman, Rourke told someone backstage that he was surprised that so many people seemed to think that Penn was his Oscar competition since “I’m not even sure he’ll get a nomination.”

On December 28, a Los Angeles entertainment honcho shared a text message that Rourke had sent him: “Look seans an old friend of mine and i didnt buy his performance at all—thought he did an average pretend acting like he was gay besides hes one of the most homophobic people i kno" [sic]

“It’s a shame,” says one veteran Hollywood lawyer. “Mickey should be looking at this as a once in a career chance for a fresh start. But dumping on Penn is not going to win him any friends. It’s not the way to get Oscar votes.”

Perhaps, but it does dovetail nicely with the recent criticism Penn faced for palling around with anti-gay world leaders. Can Rourke withstand the accusations to open a new front against Penn, or will the combined might of aggrieved Daily Beast readers and a terribly miffed Raul Castro thwart his attempted Ram Jam?

[Photo Credit: AP]

• Rourke Trashes Penn [The Daily Beast]

WHAT'S NEW: Warners, Sony and Universal are the first round of studios to drop what's left of their 2009 slates — not quite the grand finale any of them were looking for, if reviews and box-office forecasts are any indication. Yes Man and Seven Pounds will battle for the week's top spot, with Jim Carrey's comedy about a man who says "yes" to everything (including shagging Zooey Deschanal, despite himself, we're sure) favored to defeat Will Smith's suck-a-riffic Seven Pounds by less than a couple million dollars. We're calling Yes for $28.4 million versus Pounds' $26.7 million, thus ending Smith's No. 1-opening run dating back to 2002. Or maybe the sheer virtuosity of pans like A.O. Scott's or Scott Foundas's will compel more viewers than they alienate, like footage of the Hindenberg explosion or news reports coaxing spectators to the site of a uniquely spectacular train derailment.

Universal will open third with the animated mouse fable The Tale of Despereaux, which will benefit from a bit of adult/counterprogramming crossover to a take around $17.3 million. The art-house infantry is bringing up the rear, led in part by Paul Schrader and Jeff Goldblum's post-Holocaust curio Adam Resurrected, the Valerie Plame/Judy Miller dramatization Nothing But the Truth, and, all the way from France in its Oscar-qualifying run, the Cannes prize-winner The Class.

Also opening: The acclaimed, brutal Italian mob-novel adaptation Gomorrah; Bruce Campbell's misbegotten paean to himself, My Name is Bruce; John Leguizamo's working-class drama Where God Left His Shoes; the Southern-fried ensemble piece (led by William Hurt) The Yellow Handkerchief; and — ZOMG! — Uwe Boll's nasty Vietnam War venture Tunnel Rats.

THE BIG LOSER: Nothing opening this week will flop as mightily as, say, Delgo (what ever could?), but if Six Flags doesn't soon develop a Day the Earth Stood Still Hell Plunge — "the steepest drop of any film-themed thrill ride in America!" — to commemorate the film's 65% freefall in week two, we'll trademark that shit ourselves as the main attraction at Defamer Gardens.

THE UNDERDOG: Neither The Wrestler nor Mickey Rourke need our help to pull in about $260,000 in limited release this weekend, but listen: Like last week's recommendation of Gran Torino, our interest is in your total filmgoing satisfaction in the face of the Carrey/Smith threat. And The Wrestler is as good as you've heard (Kenneth Turan be damned): Rourke is a staggering screen hero in a season full of mere mortals, Marisa Tomei does some of the most dynamic clothes-optional work of her career, and Darren Aronofsky directs with purpose thought lost after the over-indulgence of The Fountain. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll cringe, you'll never handle a stapler the same way again. Increasingly this fall, we don't take that kind of magic for granted, and you shouldn't either.

FOR SHUT-INS: This week's new DVD's include your aunt's fourth most-requested holiday gift Mamma Mia!; the season's gag-gift sensation The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor; the HBO miniseries Generation Kill; and the Criterion edition of Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express. Spend wisely, and make your own sage recommendations below.